1/32 Trumpeter P-40B..Going Dark

Just a quick update.

Work continued on the wing.  Frames are now installed and the gun bay as well as the ammo box.  Tonight the stringers were installed.  

Next up will be the interior of the flaps.

All comments, critiques, and criticism are encouraged.

Joe

You are all very kind.  Thank you.

Joe

Joe ,

I am amazed and fascinated with your scratch building skills. TY for posting this as it's very  inspirational to me. i'd like to try my hand at it someday. I mean , I've done a liitle scratch building but nothing on this scale.

Lovin what youve done so far with the wing, Joe!

That wing is pretty cool, but those guns are frikin' awesome!!

BK

Many many thanks for looking in.

Spiral the base kit is pretty good but does have some issues.  

Joe

Progress, is progress. It looks like your going for some nice detail on this one, I cant wait to see it all done up. I have this kit sitting in my watch list on eBay, so I'm keeping a close watch on this build.

Yummy!

Well it has been going on a month since I last updated this thread.  As for quantity there is not a lot.  However there is some progress.  

There are frames in the wing.

Now they are not fixed permanently, they are spot glued in to make sure they fit right.  

There is also some progress on my renditions of the wing guns.

Like I said it does not look like much but it is progress.  I am much happier with the wing guns now.  

Next up will be a box for the guncarriage and the guns.  Need to find a bit more on the interior of the wing as there does appear to be a whole lot of empty there.

Till the next time, 

All comments, critiques, and criticism are encouraged.

Joe

Allen sorry.  It should not affect them too bad.  With the interior section intact that should provide the strength needed.

Update inbound.

Joe

This is going to be one interesting build. 

Wont the open upper and lower wing panels affect structural strength?

Gary those are some good sites.  To be honest I had not seen them before.

bvallot

Fermis, that's a good lookin' Hawk.  Nice colors and camo too. 

Joe, I'd be interested in hearing about a source you might have for the bulkheads.  

 

Much of the reference stuff I have is from kind folks online that have helped me out.  There are many pictures and drawings in the public realm of google searches.  Once you get a solid list of components you can start to really dig into the ins and outs.  The bulkheads themselves were from Saul Garcia (sharkmouth on many forums) and the Warhawk Museum Facebook page.

Joe

You may already have some of this information, but I'll list it here for other members of FSM.

First is this site:

http://www.outerzone.co.uk/index.asp

These are scale model plans, but some are fairly accurate in following the original design. Just type in "P-40" in the search area and you will get a couple of dozen plans.

Next is the BoxArtDen.com site:

http://www.boxartden.com/gallery/index.php/Profiles/Detail-Scale/61-Curtiss-P-40

http://www.boxartden.com/gallery/index.php/Profiles/Detail-Scale/62-Curtiss-P-40

Finally, Witold Jaworski's 3d model of the P-40 B, usuable in Blender.

Not complete, but it does show the cockpit area and rear bulkheads.

http://airplanes3d.net/index_e.html

Both the model and Blender are free.

Hope these links may be of some use.  They're certainly helping in my own build. 

Gary

Fermis, that's a good lookin' Hawk.  Nice colors and camo too. 

Joe, I'd be interested in hearing about a source you might have for the bulkheads.  

fightnjoe

Fermis you know you are partly responsible for this.  You and your detail work.

 

 

 

Joe

 

Awe shucks!

This kit was the first model I built, when I "came back", back in Jan. 09. It was also my first WIP posts here.

Fermis you know you are partly responsible for this.  You and your detail work.

Joe

Sa-weet!!!

Who's got the popcorn?!!!

To keep in line with how I want to present this I bring to you a small update.  

Prior to cutting any holes in the wing or fuselage I made some rough bulkheads.  One of the latest sessions saw the use of Dremmel and knives to cut away sections of the fuselage.

First uncut.

Then after a bit of time, the cuts.

Some little stuff was accomplished prior to the cutting as well.  I have some frames roughed for the wing.

Now after the cutting and grinding was done I test fit the roughed bulkheads and found that several were much too small.  So much for measure twice and cut once.  My next step is to redo the bulkheads.  I also need to work a bit on the pit floor to extend it to the back of the wing root.

All comments, critiques, and criticism are encouraged.

Joe

Brandon pm sent.

Bvallot this will be just a hoped improvement.  A little more in some areas but for the most part just to try to get better.

Joe

Great to see this coming around again.  Are you looking to make any changes to how it will end up?  Or more or less the same build but improved where you can improve it?

Hey Joe, where are you getting the data for your interior bulkheads? I am pimping out this 1/48 and could use some of that. 

BK

Many many thanks.

Joe

An ambitious project for sure and one that I am anxiously following along.

Thank you all for following along.  I really do appreciate it.

Joe

I missed the part about this being a "cut-away".  Quite ambitious!  Looks like you have your work "cut out" for you! 

Okay, bad pun!  I'll leave now...

Gary

I am enjoying this and you have just given me some ideas on two seperate builds I am doing, one of with is a P-40B. Yay !! I love this kinda stuff.

BK

After a couple of weeks of nothing here I am again.

Where to begin?  

First up is to mock up the firewall, cockpit floor, and bulkhead #6 which is the aft bulkhead of the cockpit.

A touch of modification as the cockpit floor is actually the top of the wing.  Trumpeter actually has this much too high in the pit.  A piece of strip on the back of the firewall will help in position.  Two strips of styrene glued as a cross section of the pit floor will help as well.  An extension is needed on the aft bulkhead to get it to match up to the floor.

Work is begun on the bulkheads aft the pit.  This begins with getting the shape with a contour guage, tracing the shape to paper, rough fitting to the interior of the fuselage side, tracing to a piece of sheet styrene, cutting it out, sanding to shape.  Easy enough.  These are just a rough cut of the bulkheads, there is much detailing to do yet to these.

They are roughed and ready.  I have now the bulkheads #7 to #14 which puts them to the tail wheel.  

Next up will be to work on the wing.  This will be the first of the cutting and reconstruction.  Have not even scratched the surface yet.

All comments, critiques, and criticism are welcome.

Joe

Many thanks for following along.

crockett

Built this kit as a flying Tiger a few years ago. There is an issue with the cockpit floor not being "deep" enough, but for most folks it isn't even noticed. Kit went togther well with the "usual" issues. It will be fun for you to build:

The windscreen fit up is very challenging, in that it does not align well with the canopy (closed position), make sure you test fit.

Crockett many thanks.  As for the shallowness of the pit, with what I have in mind I should be able to get by that.  The windscreen is a big issue but I think I have a plan for that.  

Joe